Mother Nature rides an ATV

Two small cacti have put a stop to motorcycles and
ATVs on one of southern Utah’s most contested pieces of
public land. On Sept. 20, the BLM announced that off-highway
vehicle use would be restricted in the desert surrounding Factory
Butte to protect the endangered Wright fishhook and the threatened
Winkler cactus. The decision closes 222 square miles to off-road
vehicles, but leaves riders a four-square-mile playground and 220
additional miles of established dirt roads and trails. Motorized
proponents vow to fight: Mike Swenson, executive director of the
Utah Shared Access Alliance, told the Salt Lake
Tribune that Factory Butte "is a place that Mother Nature
seems to have designed for open off-road recreation that the
government has basically taken away."